TDR
Furniture manufacturers welcome their new robotic teachers.
In a modern take on the Murphy bed, architects, designers, and inventors seeking to use technology to maximize the use of small spaces have installed so-called robotic furniture in student housing, churches, and the homes of celebrities like Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis, the Wall Street Journal .
The inventors include former Apple and Tesla engineers in San Francisco, former researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a design and architecture firm in Spain.
Manufacturers of systems that include beds that rise to the ceiling to reveal sofas, as well as movable walls and AI-enabled cameras to track storage, hope to make the technology more ubiquitous and cheaper than the $40,000 it can cost to install one in a room.
However, the most affordable robotic systems can cost as little as $5,000 each, and some have been installed in apartments that rent for $1,000 a month.
Supporters say the technology could help alleviate the growing housing crisis, similar to how the Murphy bed helped in the early 20th century.
William Murphy, frustrated by living in cramped quarters in San Francisco, invented the fold-up bed to allow the main living space of his small apartment to serve as both a bedroom and a living room.
These days, IKEA is working with Ori Expandable Apartments on what the companies call a "complex project." Ori has four floor plans, ranging from studios to two-bedroom apartments, that are already on the market.
